Personal clutter demons (long)

Original poster here :)

I've been working on it since July. Hard.

One large house, aluminum storage shed, little barn, big horse barn, yard.

All basically transformed (though still works in progress). I went through systematically, room-by-room. More or less. I did find that I have left a little something unfinished in each room. It is a disorder! :rolleyes:

A conservative guess is that we threw away or donated away a couple of tons of stuff. Not counting several truckloads hauled off by a metal salvager.

We hosted a large wedding and reception (a "frolic" and contra dance held in our horse barn) here in October and everything was simply beautiful.

At a loss for what to do with myself, the week after the wedding, I took a trash bag into the woods and picked up stuff there.

I have been in houses like the one in which BleekerStGirl describes growing up. Mine was never that bad, thank heavens.

But if the clutter causes you anxiety-->which makes you more incapable of clearing it-->which causes you more anxiety-->until it basically takes over your life, you are a hoarder.

In my work as a dvm, I find that I am running across more and more individuals who are hoarding animals. In fact, in my practice, I now find myself having to "head some off at the pass" before they get out of hand and end up on the six o'clock news, busted by animal control.

Now pardon me while I go add to my collection of 3 lb coffee cans. ;)

Good for you, SBS! It must feel like such a relief to be unburdened by the stuff!
I love a happy ending. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dogmama

lph - good advice. I'm guilting my husband into giving things away with, "This is a perfectly good coat that you never wear. Some poor guy at the Salvation Army would probably really like it - but you're being selfish & hanging onto it." It's working!

I've also heard that unless you have room in your closet, you won't buy things that actually fit / are in style / etc. I have several pairs of jeans that are old old old - we're talking the waistband is above the naval & they are clown-baggy. I happened to catch part of that show "What Not To Wear" and saw somebody else with my pants on - ho boy did she get ridiculed. So, I'll keep one pair for washing the dog & the rest are out of here.

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What Not To Wear has inspired me to get rid of lots of old clothes. I'm also more careful in buying new ones -- I'm a sucker for color and texture, so I tended to buy things that might not fit so well because I love the color or fabric. Now I pay much more attention to how things fit.

I still have clutter issues, though. For every sweater I get rid of, I seem to buy two new ones.

Yay SlowButSteady!! What an amazing transformation you have made - and how good it must make you feel!!

Congratulations!!!

I've just started thinking about maybe wanting a piano.

We've been trying to lighten our load for years, and getting a real live acoustic piano really wouldn't exactly be working toward that. I'm trying to talk myself out of it by walking around with a tape measure.

SlowButSteady,
I'm glad to hear you were able to get the clutter under control and that you feel unburdened. :)